Kukla's Korner Hockey

Brett Hull, now an executive vice-president with the Dallas Stars, used to be a font of goals. Now he is a font of ideas. He thinks the NHL can use an old approach to open a second front in its war against blindside hits that target the head: reinsert the red line.

The red line topic has cropped up in passing in discussions among GMs—Ottawa’s Bryan Murray is said to be a proponent of the idea—but it never has gained any sort of traction. Then again, the argument in favor of the return to the red line never has been made quite in the way Hull frames it.

Hull says players are increasingly vulnerable to the Rule 48 hits because they continually turn their heads to look back for the long passes that are encouraged by the increased open ice. The old-time zone-to-zone-to-zone passes, he posits, would help alleviate the problem.

Just a thought. Certainly it’s worth examining some videotape to gather empirical data.

How about simply teaching players respect one another as human beings? I know minor hockey is all about killing the other kid, and that’s where it has to start. Teach players the proper times to hit at an early age, and it gets ingrained in them.

Posted by
RedMenace
from the Church of Jesus Lashoff on 11/24/10 at 01:44 PM ET

How about simply teaching players respect one another as human beings? I know minor hockey is all about killing the other kid, and that’s where it has to start. Teach players the proper times to hit at an early age, and it gets ingrained in them.